


take my hand, take my whole life too

by PandaPaladin



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Based On A Writing Prompt, F/F, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 16:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20294350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaPaladin/pseuds/PandaPaladin
Summary: “There’s a stone statue in Midvale. A beautiful lady with her hands on her hips, a confident smile on her lips, and every feature on her body looks like it was molded from the corners of space. Her chest has a wide, golden ‘S’ on it, and the locals like to affectionately call herSupergirl.”“Why Supergirl?"“I don’t know. But I do know why people like to come see her so much. Allegedly, she’s from an abandoned place called Krypton, with technology so advanced that we still call it magic. Some say that when her soulmate touches her crest, the one with the golden ‘S’ on it, she’ll come back to life.”





	take my hand, take my whole life too

**Author's Note:**

> I saw [this prompt](https://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/184666422570/there-is-a-beautiful-statue-of-a-person-in-the) on Tumblr way, way back and I always wanted to write it somehow. And then one day I sat down with my laptop and this word vomit came out so enjoy it jfkdhalhdfs. Idk, the thought of Lena thirsting over a Supergirl statue?? Too in character, change my mind.

Tapping her pencil against the marble of her desk, Lena Luthor pressed her lips into a thin line whilst look at L-Corp’s newest problem.

Numbers and jumbled letters danced across Lena’s tablet, her eyes catching the split moment they disappeared from her view. Her brain felt like mush in her head. She’s been staring at her ginormous screen for several hours now, and her breaks only came in the form of staring at the ceiling and blinking for a couple seconds before looking back down at her work. Her white walls and white desk became the background of the black font lettering of her tablet.

Her door was nearly taken off its hinges when Winn shouldered himself inside, a timid smile plastered on his face. 

Straightening her back and plastering on her own smile for his sake, Lena greeted him with a simple “Winn, what a surprise.”

Winn was her company’s software engineer. They met at a party and bonded when the lights went out, racking their brains together to fix the power generator. He was offered a position not long after that. Although he was a little childish, Lena knew better than to dismiss his intelligence. 

“Lena!” he said with a more genuine smile. He started fiddling with his necktie, an assortment of purples and dots. “It’s almost nine. You still going?”

“You know the answer.” She tried her best to keep her smile on her face.

  
Winn only frowned at her. He stopped fiddling for a moment to lean his elbow against the wall. “Weren’t you the one who told me you were willing to arrange a night out with the rest of us to, I don’t know, spend a night somewhere that _ isn’t _your office?”

“I know, I know,” Lena said, looking up at the ceiling for a brief second. She rubbed at her eyes, pulling out her chair half an inch. “Another time, is that okay? There’s a problem with—”

“There’s always a problem though!” Winn told her with a groan. He pushed himself off the wall and walked towards her, arms crossed in a way that even Lena knew meant real business. “Winn, there’s a problem with Maxwell Lord,” he mimicked in quite a high voice. “Winn, there’s a problem with the servers, they won’t come back up. Winn, Eve hasn’t gotten me my coffee yet and there’s a problem—”

“Okay, I get it,” Lena said, a laugh bubbling her throat. She pushed her chair farther away from her desk, taking one last glance at her tablet before shutting it off. Winn watched her, eyebrows still knitted but with a much softer look. She clasped her hands and rested her chin on them, elbows pressed firmly on the cool touch of marble. “Why are you so adamant on getting me out of here today?”

  
“Wha— what do you mean?”

  
“Well, whenever I cancel, you always wave me off and give me a sad look before walking away like that’s supposed to change my mind,” Lena explained, watching Winn squirm under her gaze. She waved a lazy hand in his direction. “And you never wear that necktie. You told me yourself that wearing that too much would ‘dampen its energy of successfully picking up college chicks’.”

Winn blinked at her. Then his lips spread into a big smile and he laughed. “You’re not leaving me alone until I tell you, huh?” he teased.

  
Lena only shrugged at him, though her smile was a clear indication that she was amused.

  
“We’re sleeping over at James’ house after we get to the bar. And then spend a couple of days together to get our minds off some stuff.”

  
To say that Lena was surprised was a huge understatement. She knew that Winn requested a couple days off, sure, but it was the middle of a busy season. But then again, she knew what Winn meant about getting some good distraction. Putting all of them together in a room was pandemonium. She pondered it in her head for a split second, before coming to a decision. She knew it was one that would make her family roll in their graves (or cells, to be more accurate).

“Am I invited to those couple of days?” she mused. When Winn gave her an appalled look, she continued on. “You can all sleep over at my place, if you’d like.”

“The apartment?” Winn quirked an eyebrow.

  
“No.” Lena pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. 

  
“Oh.” Winn’s eyes widened. “My _ God!_ Really?! You’re serious?” 

“Am I not supposed to be?”

  
“Well— no. Or yes. I don’t know. But we really get to sleep in a mansion?” Winn looked like he was vibrating with energy, eyes sparkling like a kid opening presents.

Lena held up a finger. “_If,_” she warned, pausing for dramatic effect, “you make sure Nia doesn’t throw another person out the window again.”

“That won’t be too hard,” Winn said with a grin. He rubbed his hands together. When Lena stared at him, his smile fell. “Eh, kinda?”

* * *

Lena’s love for wine was a lot stronger than her desire to be the responsible adult. She decided, after her third swig, that it would be Alex’s job. Or James’. Or literally anyone that wasn’t her.

“Your record is seven glasses of red wine. Taking one more right now would make you quite… intoxicated,” Brainy said matter-of-factly. He was sitting beside her, watching her drink with an unconcerned look. Barney, or Brainy as he was affectionately called, tried to subtle move her wine bottle away on the coffee table in front of them. Lena only glowered at him, and he moved it back without another word.

“Let her loosen up, Brainy,” James said, uncorking her wine to pour himself some. Lena mournfully stared at how quickly it filled up his glass, wishing that it was her glass as well. She looked down at her lipstick-stained cup, swirling the remnants of the alcohol. “It isn’t everyday you see Lena Luthor drunk.”

“I’m not drunk,” she quickly defended.

Across the room, Nia snorted. She was playing go fish with Alex and Winn. “Not yet.”

Lena stuck her tongue out childishly, taking another sip. Laughing, James patted her back encouragingly. 

All of her friends were in her house, either trying to get drunk or already drunk. Once they heard that they were allowed in the Luthors’ lonely abode, they quickly abandoned the pub idea and went straight for her mansion with several dozen beer cans and wine bottles. The “Superfriends”, as Winn put it, were back together for the first time in long months.

  
It wasn’t like she wasn’t grateful. She really was. It felt less lonely in her childhood home when she wasn’t the only one here, when everyone was laughing and occasionally screaming out lyrics to the words of a song playing on Lena’s radio. However, there was still that bitter taste of loneliness in her mouth whenever she looked or thought too hard about her friends.

  
Nia and Brainy had abandoned whatever thing they were doing and cuddled up on the couch next to Lena for Nia to patiently explain the rules of Uno to her boyfriend. Alex was on the phone, smiling merrily to herself while she talked to who Lena assumed to be Kelly. Winn and James were nearly spitting at each other while they talked passionately about the baseball team they were cheering for. Although J’onn had to decline their invitation for some work event, she knew he was out there fiddling with his wedding ring. 

Lena looked back at her nearly empty glass. Only little stains of red wine was left. Lena Luthor had the most wonderful friends, she knew that. But sometimes, she wished there was one person she could talk to, a person who wouldn’t automatically spill whatever confession she had to their group. A significant other, sure. A best friend. _ Anything._

As if sensing her brooding, Alex looked up from her phone and gave her a quick smile. “Hey,” she said loudly enough for all of them to hear. “What are we doing tomorrow?”

  
Winn cleared his throat, obviously ready to take on the role of planner. He stood up, hands folded neatly behind his back. A couple snickers went up in the air. “At precisely seven a.m., we’ll all pile ourselves into Lena’s big limousine and head for Midvale,” he declared. 

“I don’t have a limousine,” she piped up.

“Well, get one. Duh.”

She rolled her eyes and let him continue.

  
“In Midvale, there’s a certain tourist attraction like you’ve never seen!” He was making exaggerated jazz hands now, and Lena wondered if he was doing this sober or drunk. It was never clear with Winn. 

“Are you gonna tell us or just let us wait it out?” James inquired.

“Or Google it like a normal person?” Nia said with a grin.

  
“Of course I’m gonna tell you,” Winn told them with a huff. He bent down to pick up his beer and took a quick sip. With an exaggerated sigh of content from the beer, he continued, “There’s a stone statue in Midvale. A beautiful lady with her hands on her hips, a confident smile on her lips, and every feature on her body looks like it was molded from the corners of space. Her chest has a wide, golden ‘S’ on it, and the locals like to affectionately call _Supergirl_.”

  
“Supergirl, huh?” Lena said, eyebrow arching upwards. 

“Why Supergirl?” Alex asked him, now invested in Winn’s dramatic storytelling. Everyone else looked just as invested, sitting on the edge of their seats and drinks long forgotten. Lena’s elbows rested on her knees, drink cupped in between her hands.

Winn shrugged at Alex, swinging his can dangerously close to spilling at his side. “I don’t know. But I do know why people like to come see her so much. It’s practically Midvale’s revenue. Allegedly, she’s from an abandoned place called Krypton, with technology so advanced that we still call it magic. Some say that when her soulmate touches her crest, the one with the golden ‘S’ on it, she’ll come back to life.”

“What, so people can come squeeze a statue’s breasts whenever they want in Midvale?” Lena snorted.

“It’s not on her boobs, Lena!” Winn said indignantly. “The crest is more like, uh, up here?” He waved his hand over his upper chest. “I don’t know, dude. That’s just the _ alleged _original story. I saw some scary ones on the Internet before. Or some of them are just plain old different.”

“What does the statue look like?” James asked, voicing the rest of the group’s question. His arm was hooked over the sofa, knee nearly touching Lena’s. Four people on a single couch was really not meant for idle space. 

  
“Beautiful,” Winn said, a tone of awe to his voice.

Alex looked like she wanted to throw a wine bottle at him. “Pictures, Winn. There’s pictures of this thing online, right?”

  
“Oh yeah, definitely. Thousands,” Winn said with a nod. He fished out his phone from his pocket. His thumbs poked around on his phone, tongue stuck out slightly from the side of his mouth. In less than a minute, he found what he was looking for.

“Project your phone on my living room TV,” Lena told him. He flashed her a thumbs up and pressed something. 

Her TV came to life. Every head whipped around to look at the gigantic screen that was mirroring Winn’s phone. He scrolled down slowly through the hundreds of pictures that he had searched for “Supergirl statue Midvale” on a search engine. It really was beautiful. 

It was pure stone, a muted gray colour that was a staple for nearly every old statue. However, the girl’s chest bore a golden colour, all sharp lines and edges. There was clearly an ‘S’ in there. In some pictures, the gold even shined. Her hair was down in natural locks, almost as if it was alive. There were crinkles in her skirt. Close-up shots of the statue showed the fine muscle in the statue’s biceps, flexed by having her hands on her hips. Every part of this sculpted work was so intricate, so detailed. 

It radiated confidence. Hope. There was no smile on the statue, but a grim line that called for determination.

Lena’s chest tugged. She couldn’t tell if it was from the wine or the long day, but she felt her world shifting slightly under her. She knew what the feeling was in her chest. Sadness. For what, she didn’t know. There was just something in the statue’s carefully sculpted face that brought her great longing. 

“I have one other question though. Why seven a.m.? Can’t we sleep in?” Nia bemoaned.

  
“Of course _ you _wanna sleep in,” Winn snickered. He tutted, almost like a mother. “People flock the statue during the afternoon. We arrive in Midvale around ten in the morning. Almost nobody will be there when we do.”

“It’s true,” Lena said in support of Winn. “Tourist traps and attractions find the least amount of customers in the morning because people are still traveling, on planes, or somewhere else.”

  
Everyone stared at her. 

“What?” she said, almost nervously.

“How come you sound like you wanna see the statue so badly?” Alex asked her.

  
“I— I don’t?”

  
“Perhaps she wants to see Supergirl to touch her—” Brainy added musingly.

“I’ll cancel the limo if none of you mind your own business,” Lena threatened through her teeth, pointing at every one of them with her empty glass. 

That shut them up.

* * *

At exactly six in the morning, Winn woke them up with pots and pans, joined by a tight-lipped Brainy.

“Brainy!” Nia groaned, slamming her face with a pillow. “How could you?”

“Sorry, Nia,” he said with a shrug. “I got bored of waiting for everyone to wake up and Winn, well…”

Lena didn’t mind too much. She had to get up earlier than this a couple times. Sometimes, she never even got to sleep at all. She pushed herself up with a forearm, blinking away the sunshine from her eyes. She was sprawled on the floor in a sleeping bag, when Alex kept insisting that instead of everyone retreating to one of Lena’s luxurious guest rooms, they all sleep on the floor. “A bonding experience,” Alex had proudly called it. No one was willing to say a word against her.

It seemed like Alex regretted it. She was propped up against a couch, still on the floor, with her arms folded and a scowl on her face. Her bed hair was funny, though Lena would never admit it out loud. 

  
They all got ready within the hour, thanks to the many unnecessary bathrooms in Lena’s house. However, the many rooms in the mansion were also a cause for many panicked phone calls about them being lost.

  
In the limo, Lena was on a mini tablet, swiping left and right while she pursed her lips.

“It’s always work with you, huh?” Winn joked, bumping his shoulder with hers.

  
“I can’t exactly get away from it entirely,” Lena told him with a chuckle. She paused to study the numbers on her screen. She scowled to herself and dismissed the numbers with a flick of her index finger. The limo jostled over a bump.

“Luthor, I am five seconds away from throwing your tablet out the window,” called out Alex, a real warning in her tone. 

“I’ll just buy a new one,” she said back. She smirked to herself when she saw Alex slump in her peripheral vision.

  
Before she can celebrate even more of her small victory, Winn snatched her tablet and turned the screen black with a click of the power button. A small yelp of protest escaped her lips, but Winn tossed it across from him to James, who gave it to Nia, who gave it to Brainy, who gave it to Alex. 

Alex sat down on her tablet and crossed her arms, smiling innocently back at Lena.

  
Lena deflated this time. She scoffed and opened the mini fridge beside her, pulling out a water bottle. Her friends laughed at her sullen loss. Lena briefly considered splashing the water across Winn’s face.

“See? Now you’re _ forced _to spend time with us,” Winn clarified, a jolly grin on his face.

  
Lena faked being bitter by rolling her eyes. Winn saw through it and pushed her lightly with his shoulder. “So,” he drawled out, eyebrows pumping up and down, “got the hots for the statue, huh?”

If Lena was still drinking her water, she would’ve surely choked on it. “What?” she said incredulously. 

  
“I saw the way you were looking at it this morning!” Winn shouted victoriously, though the rest of her friends were disinterested in their conversation, lost in their own worlds. “I saw you look up Supergirl before getting in the limo. And you got this— this weird look on your face, like uh…” He waved his hand around and chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Like a look you get when you’re enamoured or something.”

“Enamoured,” Lena echoed, slightly amused. “A big word for you, don’t you think?”

“I nearly failed my English exam in freshman year, so yeah, it kinda is,” Winn said sardonically. “But enough about me. Sooo, what draws you to her?”

“She doesn’t talk as much as you do, for one,” Lena hummed.

They bickered back and forth for a while, but abandoned it for a couple rounds of chess that was publicly watched by the rest of her friends. Obviously, Lena won all seven times, but there were a couple games where Winn was only a couple moves from victory, which was enough for him to be satisfied. 

Eventually, a sign welcoming to Midvale came into view. Everything was greener than National City, and Lena rolled down a window to welcome the smell of nature. All of her friends chattered excitedly, or took candid pictures of each other or the mountain range.

When Lena directed her driver to the nearest hotel, Winn protested and insisted they come take pictures with the statue first before checking in. He reasoned that it was early and they needed to bid their time, and hotels can always wait for them in the meantime. Lena relented, much to everyone’s delight.

Apparently, Winn wasn’t the only one who wanted to take social media worthy pictures with Supergirl. 

Winn and Lena’s premonition was right, at least. The park where Supergirl resided was nearly bare, save for the few joggers and dog walkers milling about. However, the middle of the park, where Supergirl was perched, was completely void of any other human. Winn expressed his delight, tugging at James’ jacket to help him pose with the stone statue.

Her breath labored with each step she drew closer to Supergirl. Details came to life in her face, in her skirt, in her cape. She saw a few articles online that talked about the statue’s fashion choices, ranging from saying that she was an 18th century knight to an alien from a different planet. Nonetheless, one thing was clear— Supergirl was really, _really _pretty. 

Her gleaming chest wasn’t the only thing shining. Her arms and her hair shone in the sunlight, as if it wasn’t made out of stone at all. As if it molded from steel itself. 

She stood a good few feet away from everyone else. Her arms were crossed as she took in her friends. They were walking around the statue and staring at it like she was, though Winn had already jumped in and flashed a thumbs up at the camera to take a picture with the statue. James called out his countdown, sighing every time Winn struck up a new pose.

Alex asked her to take a couple pictures with Supergirl, standing a good couple inches away from the statue itself. She didn’t once glance at the golden crest, never touching it. 

Nia and Brainy were a little different. They took turns taking pictures of each other, both of them shyly placing a hand on the corners of the golden plate while posing for the camera. Lena took a picture of them side by side with the statue.

James never took a picture with the statue. But, Lena caught him glancing left and right to their friends before placing the flat of his palm on the middle of the crest, clearly disappointed when nothing happened. Lena didn’t bring it up, though she locked it in her memory for potential blackmail. 

No one was there with them by the time they all took their turn with the statue. Except for Lena.

Noticing Lena’s guarded expression and crossed arms, Winn bounced over to her and held out James’ camera for her to see. “I asked James if I could borrow this to take more quality pictures of me with it,” he clarified at her bemused expression. He held it up to his eyes and took a picture of Lena’s surprised look. Chuckling, he put it down and said, “I don’t think you’ve even come close to the statue yet. You want me to take a couple pictures?”

  
“It’s fine,” she said genuinely. “Thank you for asking. I’m just not a superstitious person.”

“So what?” Winn shrugged at her. “Alex didn’t even look at her weird symbol thingy. Nia and Brainy are a thing and they were just posing for fun. The soulmate story was probably just a story made up by one of the locals to attract people in small town Midvale.” 

“Clearly,” Lena said. She pressed her lips together, her arms still crossed. “I don’t know, Winn. I don’t even know what I’d do with the picture.”

“Hang it up in your sad office,” Winn suggested. “It’ll bring a pop of color. Something to remember the best day of your life.”

“I thought going to the water park was supposed to be the best day of my life?” she teased. 

“Second best day of your life then,” Winn said, a smile from ear to ear. Lena didn’t ask if today was supposed to be the second best day of her life, or if it was the water park. “Anyway, just pose beside it, will you? I’ll even give you a moment with it.”

“A moment?” Lena laughed.

  
“Oh yeah. You’ll see what I mean when you get up close and personal with her.”

Winn pushed her to the statue despite her protests. Nia was buying coffee from a vendor that looked like it was miles away, Brainy not too far behind on his phone. Alex and James compared photos on a bench nearby. No one was paying attention to them.

Lena knew exactly what he meant when she was finally only an inch away from touching the statue. Whatever Supergirl was crafted from (because at this point, she had _ no _clue), she was made in a way that felt alive. There were ruffles in her outfit, bumps that looked like real lint, and curls of her hair. Not being able to resist it, Lena touched a spot on her bicep, one that looked so strong and real that Lena felt her breath knocked out of her chest. When she squeezed, she only felt hard rock. She didn’t know why she felt disappointed.

“See what I mean?” Winn called out to her. “Keep doing whatever you’re doing, I heard candid shoots are in.”

  
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Lena dragged her fingertips along the bicep to Supergirl’s elbow. It was sharp, yet curvy at the same time. It felt so real on her fingers. 

Her eyes jumped over to the gleam of a golden ‘S’. It looked larger from up close. Eyes trailing upwards, she saw Supergirl’s face and nearly had a heart attack. It looked like a real, breathing person for a split second. It reminded her of the time she visited the marble sculpture of David with her estranged family. Like if she blinked and looked away, the statue would come alive.

Somehow, Supergirl looked even more real than that. _ Felt _realer than that. There was that sadness lodged in between her heart again. She had the urge to run her fingers over the side of the girl’s face.

“Are you done eye-fucking or what?” Winn said.

Resisting the urge to flip him off this time, Lena simply looked over at him with an annoyed look. Her hand was gripped on Supergirl’s elbow. He clicked the camera and grinned behind it. “Now touch her chest!” he said excitedly.

“You told me I didn’t have to,” Lena said bluntly.

  
“Just for photo purposes. Do that thing girls do with men on the covers of books.” When Lena only gave him a confused look, he huffed and added, “You know? Like her hand on his chest and her hips are forward and she’s looking over at you with this mysterious expression. Except you’re doing it with a statue and you’re—”

“I get it, Winn, thank you,” she told him. Laughing lowly under her breath, she looked back at Supergirl’s face. Embarrassed and knowing that Winn captured the soft look on her face, she looked down at Supergirl’s crest instead. The funny thing was that it didn’t even look like the ‘S’ was plated onto the sculpture after it was finished. It looked like it was sculpted with the statue.

A sudden wave washed over Lena. A tidal storm of emotions, those of sadness and guilt and joy and misery. She was so overwhelmed, her grip on Supergirl’s elbow tightened. She set her teeth together. 

Encouraged by Winn, she tried her best at a pleasant smile and placed her palm over the golden symbol. Her hand felt warm, and questionably felt warmer soon after placing it snugly.

Everything happened quite fast after that.

She looked at Winn to pose with her smile, but Winn had his camera down. His slackened jaw would have reached the floor. Confused, Lena glanced over at the bench with Alex and James, who were staring right at her with wide eyes. But they weren’t looking at her, she quickly realized. They were looking beside her.

A weight pressed on Lena’s side and she instinctively caught the weight in her arms, an arm slung around the waist of a person. She looked down, breath sucked up in her throat while she stared back at a blonde woman in a one piece outfit, blue and red with a golden outline along a red ‘S’ on her chest. 

The woman stumbled and her head knocked against Lena’s shoulder. Lena tightened her grip without a second thought, the shock paralyzing her body. The woman’s free arm gripped Lena’s hip.

Supergirl, or so Lena thought, blinked a couple times. Her mouth was formed in a small circle, catching air into her lungs almost greedily. She gulped visibly and forced her head upwards after taking a step away from whoever or whatever was holding her up. 

When she caught Lena’s eyes, Lena noticed for the first time how bright they were. A cobalt blue that shone nearly golden in the sunlight.

“Lena?” the woman breathed. Her eyes widened even more. “Le—”

She collapsed back into Lena’s arms, and Lena took action. She looked over at Winn and shouted at him to get her some water. Alex and James had shot up from their seats. Nia and Brainy, who had recently come back from their coffee break, were about to bolt to get help. 

  
“No!” The words were hoarse in her throat. Everyone stopped briefly to look at her. She shook her head at Nia. “Don’t get help.” She didn’t know why she had such a bad feeling with getting help, but she knew it would. Thankfully, Nia had sensed her urgency and fallen back to them silently.

  
Lena glanced over at the podium that had housed Supergirl for as long as this town could remember. There was nothing there, except Lena and the woman leaning on each other about two inches away from it. 

* * *

Her friends whispered in low voices behind her. Lena, who had taken it upon herself to dab carefully along the mysterious woman’s brow for sweat, was too concentrated at her task to fully register who was talking to who. It was ironic as well, since Lena could literally do rocket science in her head while talking to three different people on the phone.

It was just that this woman had occupied every free space in her mind.

Who was this? Was this Supergirl? Were the legends true? Was she this woman’s—?

Lena blocked out the rest of her thoughts with a steady thought of _ Nope. Not going there. _

“—take her to the police,” someone snapped behind her, clearly in the middle of a semi-heated conversation.

“No. Do _ you _ want to explain to the authorities that ‘Oh, hey! We were at a very popular tourist destination and the statue is gone and we think this breathing woman _ is _the statue!’” someone else snapped back. Lena finally recognized the voice. It was Sam’s, who had driven like a maniac out of Metropolis and dropped her kid off with her mother in order to get to Midvale after seeing Winn and Alex’s frantic texts. 

  
The first voice became quiet with Sam’s explanation.

“Well, what else are we going to do?” Alex said tiredly. Lena hadn’t turned around to face them in hours. However, she knew for a fact that Alex had her arms crossed, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “It was hard enough to convince hotel management that this— this girl here was with us and she just needed to rest.” Lena didn’t need to look to know that she was waving her arm in Lena’s general direction.

Lena was still carefully dragging the rag over the blonde woman’s face when she felt a hand on her shoulder. When she didn’t turn around or react, the hand squeezed. 

“Lena,” James said lowly.

  
“She’s breaking out in a sweat,” Lena said. Every voice in the room was silenced by her words. “I checked her temperature— she’s normal. I think she’s just tired.”

“Plus, there’s like seven bodies crammed in here,” Winn pointed out. “The temperature in here is _ hot._”

  
“Then go back to your rooms.” Lena’s voice was a cold calm. A facade of how many concerns were racing through her head, bombarding her with intrusive thoughts and unanswerable questions. She put the rag down beside the unconscious woman’s head to look at them. Her knees groaned in response, pained by how long she was kneeling by the bedside.

  
They were all looking at her with different mixes of emotions. Some with concern, some with surprise, and some with pity. 

Despite the looks on their faces, she knew exactly what was on their minds. It was the same as hers. Is she really Supergirl’s soulmate? Is this _ really _Supergirl?

“Are you sure you’re okay? I can stay here with you,” Sam asked genuinely.

“I’ll be fine.” Lena forced a smile on her face, but she doubted it reached her eyes. “When she wakes up, I’ll give her time to adjust and ask you in here one by one as to not scare her, the poor thing.”

  
Everyone exchanged glances at each other. She wondered if it was because they were doubting that she was okay or if it was because she called Supergirl a “poor thing”. If there was one thing Lena Luthor did not do, it was to have such gentle voices for people she barely met. She even shocked herself.

Slowly, everyone piled out of her private hotel room one by one. She was more than happy to oblige by giving people their own rooms, suites at that. They were all neighbours, in the least.

Sam stayed behind to give her friend a glance. Lena was seconds away from turning around to do what she was doing. “Find some tea and maybe some aspirin,” Sam told her. When Lena gave her a puzzled look, she continued, “Passing out isn’t fun. Waking up is even worse. I always give Ruby some ginger tea and medicine after soccer practice.”

“Thank you,” Lena said quietly. Sam gave her a small smile and exited the room. 

Sighing through her nose, Lena put her forehead against the white sheets and closed her eyes. Instinctively, her hand found her supposed soulmate’s shoulder and stayed there. She didn’t know how long she stayed like that, but it was long enough for her to notice the sweat pooling underneath her sweater.

She pulled it off and discarded it near her luggage. She got up and found the small kitchen of her room, opening a small tea bag that came with the suite and put a kettle on the stove. She made herself a quick sandwich while she waited for the water to boil over, munching quietly on turkey and whole grain. 

  
Her sandwich a full three-quarters eaten, she stuffed the rest into her mouth and pulled the kettle away. The aroma in the air smelled amazing and relaxing as she stirred around a small spoon in a mug. For once since that morning, Lena’s brain was not running one hundred miles per minute. 

  
She looked around the cupboards and drawers to see if she could find any medicine, going as far as to check the bathroom. A bit irritated and intending to call room service to get some aspirin, Lena stopped dead in the middle of the room.

Sitting up and rubbing at an eye groggily was Supergirl. The symbol on her chest looked as if it was mocking her.

  
She openly gaped. Supergirl was doing the same right back at her.

  
“You're… awake,” Lena said slowly, coming forward with her hands out like she was coaxing a frightened animal.

“I am, yeah.” The woman frowned. “Where am I?”

Lena stopped walking near the bedframe, to the point that she could reach over and touch the foot of the bed. The blonde’s piercing blue eyes never left hers. Somehow, Lena didn’t feel threatened by it. There was only curiosity in those eyes.

“You’re in my room,” Lena explained to her. She crossed her arms subconsciously over her chest. Working her jaw to will herself to speak again, she collected the first question on her mind. “Are you… Supergirl?”

The woman blinked at her for a second. When her question dawned on her, she gave a jolly laugh, arms folded over her belly. The bedsheets were still wrapped over her legs and waist. “Kinda,” she said with a little smile. Lena found herself studying the smile, all the way from the good-natured eyes to the way lines creased over the woman’s face. “That’s what they— they, um, called me back home. My name is Kara.”

“Kara,” Lena said, testing the name on her tongue. At the sound of her name, Kara’s smile grew even bigger. 

“Kara Zor-El.”

  
Lena tilted her head. Brow furrowed, she gently asked, “Where are you from, Kara?” She had never heard such a peculiar last name in her life. Yet it sounded gentle. Right for her.

“Krypton,” Kara said matter-of-factly. When she tried to hoist herself farther up the headboard, she visibly flinched, a hand coming instinctively to the side of her head with a grimace on her face. Lena sprang into action, remembering the warm tea she made on the counter. 

“Keep talking, I’m just getting you something,” Lena called out from the kitchen, which was not too far from where Kara sat.

Obliging, Kara kept talking. “I don’t think Krypton exists now, huh?” she said with a dry chuckle. When Lena didn’t respond, she said, “Krypton was my home. It’s a city closer to the borders of Canada. We were under attack.” Her voice was so quiet and small that Lena just wanted to run over there and envelope her into a hug.

She pursed her lips instead and removed the spoon from the mug, placing it into the sink. She stalked back over to Kara, making sure she didn’t spill the tea. Lena sat down on the edge of her bed, right beside Kara, and the bed sank a half inch under her weight. Kara took her tea with a smile and a thank you.

Overcome by the urge to comfort Kara physically, Lena tried to prevent it by gripping the bed sheets, staying silent to let Kara continue or enjoy her tea. 

  
“Back then, people called us the greatest civilization on Earth,” she said, looking down at her tea. She took a sip of it and closed her eyes, clearly enjoying Lena’s concoction. Lena tried not to smile too much. “That probably wasn't true if we managed to go under in only a couple of months.”

  
“Like Atlantis?” Lena supplied.

Kara gave her an odd look. “Maybe,” she said tentatively, both hands cupping her mug.

Lena chewed on her lower lip, watching Kara take a couple more gulps of the tea almost hungrily. “If you don’t mind me asking, what… destroyed Krypton?” she asked hesitantly. Curiosity killed the cat, after all. She never heard of Krypton. When she looked it up last night, it only gave her results of the Supergirl statue that was now bare in Midvale Park. 

Kara’s eyes flashed with something that Lena identified with all too well. Guilt, and sadness, and anger. Lena didn’t press it again.

  
“I never told you who I was,” Lena said, clearing her throat and adjusting her posture on the bed. Kara glanced over at her, clearly interested. “I’m Lena Luthor.” She felt awkward again. What was she supposed to do, stick out her hand? Hug Kara? Kiss her?

“Luthor, huh?” Kara said, a lilt to her voice. She brought the mug back up to her lips, though she was clearly smiling. 

“Don’t tell me you know about the Luthors too?” Lena groaned melodramatically. Of course, she mostly joking. There was no way that Kara, an approximately millennium old statue, would know about her family. Right?

Hell, she had no idea what Kara knew and what she didn’t.

“I do,” Kara finally settled on saying. “I know that there’s a Luthor named Lena.” She laughed when Lena’s haughty panicked expression gave way to a miffed one.

Lena chose to laugh with her. Only because Kara’s laugh was so contagious. Only because Kara looked like _ that _when her eyes squinted with her laughter. 

Finally, one of the next to last question was brought to her lips. “Do you know what happened to you?”

Kara regarded her with an expression she couldn’t recognize. Finally, she took one sip of her tea and bit her lower lip, looking at a painting across the room. “They were going to kill me,” she said, as if she was expressing her dismay over the weather. Seeing Lena’s shot up eyebrows, she quickly glanced over at Lena and added, “Obviously, they couldn't do it,” and chuckled.

  
Lena couldn’t bring herself to laugh with her this time. Not when a thousand questions were being answered with even more questions.

“I was protecting my friends. They didn’t do anything wrong. So I fought back and protected them and hid them away and…” Kara’s gulp clearly wasn’t from the taste of tea. “They caught me. They locked me away for a couple days to get my trial ready but I think one of the councilmen took pity on me and asked for an alternative.”

Lena was certain she knew the answer. Or at least, a good portion of the answer. However, she couldn’t help but gently ask her for confirmation. “What was the alternative?”

Kara’s eyes flitted away from the painting to look at Lena beside her, then back down at her mug. It was already half empty, Lena noted. A rosy color was carefully being painted onto Kara’s cheeks. She was confused for half a second before realizing. 

_ Oh. _

“They turned me into a statue,” Kara began weakly, bringing her mug up to her lips. She took a big gulp this time, hands shaking slightly. “They, ummm, made me pose and everything. Told me that people were going to mock me for centuries in the middle of town.”

  
“Well, it obviously didn’t go their way,” Lena told her with a satisfied smile of her own. Kara looked over at her in confusion. “You’re known for being a beacon of hope, Kara. People come from all over the globe to see you and see if you were— um.” She was definitely flustered, only remembering now what her last words insinuated.

Kara clearly saw that too. “Yeah,” she said with a meager stammer. “They told me that I’ll come back alive when my soulmate touches this.” She pointed at the ‘S’. The use of the word made her slightly breathlessly and made Lena even more flustered. 

“How— could they actually do that?” she finally asked. “Could they just, you know, make it so that they turn a live human into a _ statue _and come back with no consequence whatsoever with a soulmate?”

“They’ve done crazier things,” Kara told her with a half shrug. 

  
The weight of Kara’s words made more questions run through her head. Who was “they”? Why did they know how to do these things way back in the past when here, in the 21st century, they were struggling to cure diseases? Why was Kara wearing that?

“Why are you wearing that?” The words were out of her mouth in an instant, and Lena almost slammed her hand over her mouth in embarrassment. 

Kara took no offense to it. In fact, she took it in stride and laughed genuinely at her question. Kara sat up to wrap red fabric around her knuckles and pulled it up for Lena to see, her mug in the other hand. It was her cape. Which, in of itself, was very weird. “They made me pose as weirdly as they could think of, but they also made me wear something ridiculous to coax people into making fun of me even more,” Kara explained. She made a face. Lena guessed that she realized what she was wearing and was disgusted by it, the same way a person in this decade would be grossed out by crocs and khaki shorts. 

“I guess they wanted to make me look awful as possible to discourage potential, um, people to come and break me free,” Kara laughed shortly.

Lena hummed and rubbed the fabric of the red cape in between two fingers. It was unnaturally soft yet smooth. “Well, I wouldn’t lie to you and say that it doesn't look flashy now but…” She tried to find the right words in her head. “To people now, you look like a superhero. I think that’s why you’re so popular,” she teased.

“A what?” 

Lena looked for the explanation in her head. “Someone who protects people without expecting anything back,” she settled on. “Someone who makes other people feel confident and strong.”

She wasn’t expecting the soft smile on Kara’s lips. “So like you.”

  
“Me?” she asked incredulously. Her hand was on Kara’s thigh and she pulled it back like it was hot lava. 

“Yes, you!” Kara said with a bigger smile. She dropped the fabric away from her fingers and wrapped the mug around both her hands again. “Here I am, a weird looking girl in the middle of… of…?” 

“Midvale, 21st century,” she clarified as slowly as she could, to let Kara process it properly.

If Kara was surprised, she didn’t show it. She kept hammering on. “I’m a weird looking girl in the 21st century in Midvale and you took me in. I don’t remember much after passing out, but I remember you were wiping away my sweat and cradling my face.”

Heat blasted over Lena’s face, though she tried to cough it away. “You can’t really say no when a statue that’s been an American staple for as long as anyone could remember turns into, well, you.”

  
Kara smiled at her again. Just as softly as it used to be. _ As it used to be, _ Lena’s head mused. She felt like she’s seen that smile before. Kissed that smile before. _ Loved _that smile before. 

As if hearing her thoughts, Kara sat up and leaned over to her. Her eyebrows were pulled together, almost in worry. Lena watched her, her heart aching almost painfully in her chest. It was an ache she never felt. An ache she knew she’s certainly felt before, but for the life of her, she can’t pinpoint _ where. _

The distress must’ve shown in her eyes. Kara swiftly took her hand in hers. 

“Lena…” she murmured.

The door burst open and both of their heads turned to look. 

“I told you that bringing an FBI agent was helpful!” Winn said victoriously, wagging a finger accusingly at a sulking James.

  
Alex was in front and center. She looked at them, eyebrows shot up high in surprise. “How long has she been awake?”

“A couple minutes,” Lena said easily. When Alex didn’t look amused she smiled guiltily and said, “Maybe closer to half an hour.”

  
Before Alex could scold her about trusting her friends or coming to them, every eye in the room looked over at Kara. There was a hush, a silence that fell over her friends like a curtain. Kara looked at everyone, drinking them in all at once. Clearly, she felt misplaced, though she oddly didn’t look stiff. Just a bit awkward. 

“Hi?” Kara said, more like a question than a greeting. She lifted a hand up, the one that was placed so warmly over Lena’s, as an unsure way of waving. “I’m Kara,” she continued when no one said anything, only staring. 

  
“Oh, Kara,” Winn said, almost in anguish. “We _ need _to go shopping.”

* * *

The thing about Kara is that she's scarily good at making friends. While Lena had taken weeks, hell even months, to warm up to all of her friends, Kara just had to be in their vicinity for a couple minutes and suddenly everyone likes her around. Not that Lena didn’t see why— Kara’s bright smile and go-around attitude even managed to make her walls crack. 

  
Alex, who Lena had known for years but still chatted only biyearly thanks to their medical interests, was right under Kara’s spell the quickest. She was fiercely protective and refused just as adamantly as Lena about handing Kara over to authorities. When they stopped over at a karaoke bar for the night, she was even _ singing _ with Kara. It was suffice to say that everyone was floored.

The next friend Kara got to steal from her was Winn. They bonded over their interests with superheroes, and Winn had promised to give her a couple comic books to start reading (one time, Lena touched a book of his and he raved about taking proper care with comics for hours). 

James, Nia, and Brainy were all fond of Kara. Kara adored them right back. It made the pit of Lena’s stomach fester with jealousy all day long, and she tried as best as she could to push it away. She knew she shouldn’t feel like Kara was stealing her friends, that Kara was out to get her somehow, but how could she not? Kara was too bright, too loving, too much of everything that made Lena dizzy.

  
After they had piled four bags of new clothes for Kara (she wore Lena’s button-up and jeans in the meanwhile) and spent a drained amount of time at the bar, Alex brought up a good point. She stopped them in the middle of the sidewalk, blocks away from the hotel.

  
“She looks too much like… you know,” she said with a hush, grouping them in a circle to talk. 

Winn snorted. “So what? It’s not like the first thing people are going to say is ‘oh look it’s that missing Supergirl statue’.” Beside him, Kara grinned goofily. It made the pit in Lena’s stomach grow tenfold, though she couldn’t understand it.

  
“Really?” Alex said distastefully. She jerked her head in the direction of a shop window, which displayed a news anchor avidly speaking about Midvale’s stolen statue incident. Around them, people walked past, some having to take a double take when looking at Kara. If Lena was being honest, it was a half and half situation with people recognizing her face from the news or them simply finding her downright attractive. Kara’s big smile and sunglasses perched on top of her head made her look inviting. 

“Nevermind,” Winn finally said, holding his hands up in surrender. “What do we do then?”

  
Alex was quiet for a moment. Then she glanced over at Lena, who balked when she saw Alex’s eyes glint impishly. 

In the end, Lena had no choice. Alex instructed that everyone else go back to the hotel with Kara’s clothes (Kara complained about not wanting people to do things for her, but one look from Alex hushed her down) while Alex, Kara, and Lena took a detour somewhere else. Nobody dared to question them. 

They stopped outside a quaint-looking building. Alex spun Kara around to face her and Lena’s breath hitched in her throat. In a blink, Alex took out an eyeglass case from her back pocket. “Sunglasses?” Lena mused.

  
“No. Glasses,” Alex said, opening the case to reveal a pair of black prescription glasses. Lena blinked. She’s noticed Alex carrying it around before— she just assumed it was her sunglasses. “They’re for you,” she said, addressing it towards Kara. She held it out for her and Kara took it tentatively, her brow furrowed in question.

  
“What are they for?” Kara finally asked. Lena wondered the same thing. 

“People might recognize you less with these on.” Alex shrugged and waited for Kara to put them on. She split into a satisfied smile when Kara blinked, taking in the world around her. “They’re prescriptionless. They belonged to my dad. He, um, kept them because they were a prop from a good play he was in.”

Lena squinted at Kara. She did look different. Not too much, obviously, but if she stood next to the statue that she used to be, there wouldn’t be a very clear similarity. Kara pushed her glasses up and began fiddling with the frame. 

“Anyway, are you ready?” Alex told them, pushing the glass door open to the building beside them. She told them why they were here on the way over. It was a passport office to get Kara some documents. A friend worked there, a girl named Lucy, and Alex had texted her about their situation, replacing the statue story for finding Kara skittishly looking around because she lost her memory. Lena didn’t think it was that believable, but Lucy owed her friend and promised to shut up about it.

  
They met Alex’s friend almost immediately. She took Kara’s picture, constantly reminding her to stop smiling for passport photos. She made up Kara’s identity cards (something Lena knew that Lucy wasn’t allowed to do), filling them up on her computer with flying fingers. She told them she only had one blank left, and that was to ask for Kara’s last name.

The three of them went quiet. When two heads turned to look at Kara, she just looked blank. Almost sad. “I can’t use my real last name,” she finally told them. “It’s not…”

“I know,” Alex said soothingly, rubbing her back. The action made Lena’s gut wrench and she forced it down by biting hard on her lip. “So go with Danvers.”

Lucy had stopped typing and Lena and Kara openly gawked. “Isn’t that your last name?” Kara asked, eyes wide with uncertainty. 

  
Then Lena finally made the connection. Alex was protective and defensive of Kara, something Lena had never seen her do with anyone else. She remembered, very faintly, of how Alex drunkenly confessed to her at a bar one night about being an only child. Of how her parents tried to conceive a second, but they could never bring it to term. Of how Alex was desperately lonely for a sibling, to gain a person she could protect endlessly. 

  
For some reason, Alex’s actions towards Kara made it seem less hostile to her. Lena openly deflated, almost _ glad, _and for the life of her she couldn’t figure it out.

  
“Yeah,” Alex finally said, seeming a bit nervous. She rubbed the back of her neck and leaned against Lucy’s counter. “Are you… okay with that?”

_ “Okay?” _ Kara exclaimed loudly. “Are you kidding me? That’s— Alex, we can be siblings!” Her words made Alex smile wide. They hugged tightly, almost rocking back and forth with the force. Lena looked away to give them the privacy and made eye contact with Lucy, who gave her a knowing smile.

  
When they came out of the office with a passport and identification cards, Kara was basically bouncing all the way to the hotel. Alex and Lena trailed behind. She finally got the courage to speak up.

  
“Why did you bring me here?” she asked evenly. Lena didn’t do anything. Alex had everything under control.

Alex shrugged, hands in her pockets. “She seems more comfortable around you,” she said truthfully, kicking a stone out of the way, “I thought, maybe, if I brought you along, she wouldn’t say no with going with me. And I was right. She saw you coming along and she stuck by your side like a puppy.” Alex gave a good-natured laugh.

  
Lena looked down, chuckling, and kicked another stone.

When they got back to the hotel, Lena had immediately realized something. There was only one bed in her room. She insisted that she could sleep on the sofa bed so Kara could take the mattress. When she said it, Kara looked back at her with a smile and kindly said that they could share it, if she wanted. There was a tone to her voice, like she was afraid of Lena’s answer.

  
Lena, after mulling it over, said she would take the sofa, insisting even when Kara suggested they switched beds. While Lena fixed up her pillows and blanket, she could see Kara looking at her. Dejected and wistful. When Kara caught her eyes flicking over to her, she only smiled encouragingly, eyes bright as ever.

The next couple of days in Midvale were too fast. She could close her eyes for one moment and the rising sun would become dusk. One blink turns breakfast with friends to having drinks at a small pub.

  
The only thing that slowed down was Kara. Lovable Kara, who would catch her every dejected emotions. Kara, who stuck closely by Lena and made her laugh, made her smile so wide it hurt her cheeks. Even though she was with _ her _friends, Kara was the one who made her belong. She’d make a joke and everyone would laugh, and Lena would never fail to see her look straight at her to see if she was laughing too.

When she smiled, the corners of her eyes would crinkle and she’d squint. Her laughter was soft but loud, and you could see her white teeth.

Whenever she got ready for bed, Kara would unbutton her shirt slowly, citing that she liked it too much to do so much as crinkle it. 

At night, Kara paced. In the darkness of their room, Lena could see her get up, walk around, and then sit up in her bed, facing the wide windows that brought in the noises of the city street. Sometimes, a car would flash by and illuminate her face. There was concentration etched on her features. A furrowed brow, pursed lips, eyes that only stared ahead. 

The small faded scar near the gap between her eyebrows made Lena want to run her finger over it. If Lena looked too long, her stomach would churn, wanting hopelessly to reach over and stroke her knuckles over Kara’s cheek, or her knitted eyebrow, or her worrying lip. So she’d look away, before Kara could look back at her with that same intensity for too long.

They came back to National City after the third night, tired but happy. They all said their goodbyes, hugging around and chatting about their time, before they realized something almost simultaneously. 

  
“Um, so are we gonna leave Kara on the street or…?” Winn joked.

  
“She can stay with me,” Alex quickly said. “She’s my sister now. I can’t just drop her off somewhere.”

  
Kara tried to argue with her weakly. “I don’t want to intrude, or—”

“Kara, I swear it’s fine.” Alex flashed her a genuine smile. “Nobody else lives with me and you go crazy if you’re alone for too long. I think I’d like some company.”

Lena crossed her arms over her chest, chewing restlessly on her lower lip. Before Kara could be pulled away with her sister, her eyes stayed squarely on Lena’s. Their friends were starting to disperse. “Wait,” she said, tugging Alex over. Alex looked over her shoulder in question, then looked at Lena. Lena was just as confused.

  
“Am I gonna see you again?” Kara asked her, eyes big and hopeful. She had this habit of taking off her glasses to fidget with them. It made Lena’s chest feel taut.

“Depends.” She smiled at Kara, who smiled even wider back. “I’ll come see you tomorrow and see how you get settled?”

  
To her surprise, Kara walked over to her and hugged tight. It made Lena’s chest feel tight and hard to breathe, but somehow it was comforting. Like she didn’t want to let go.

Kara let her go with a final smile. She waved goodbye to her when Lena got settled in the back of her car, her driver taking off into traffic. Lena raised a hand to her right back, not being able to keep her smile at bay. Alex tugged her sister away and they disappeared from the back of Lena’s black Cadillac.

Lena loosened a breath. She settled back into her seat, head resting over the cushion. 

  
There was a dull ache in her entire body. It wasn’t caused by the amount of walking she had to do with her friends. Her muscles felt okay, even better actually. But the squirming in her gut wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t relent with her until she was settled in her soft bed. 

She’s felt this once before in her life. Over a lifetime ago, when her mother would tuck her into a bed and sing her a lullaby. Her mother died in one swoop by given chance, and she was handed over to a family that never smiled the way Kara did, never looked at her the way Kara would. 

Her head throbbed painfully against her skull. She blinked a dozen times before smothering her face in the pillow. She willed herself not to cry and forced herself to sleep. 

* * *

Kara settled nicely with National City much faster than Lena could ever expect from her. As promised, she came to visit Kara with a house-warming gift. Alex’s water went down the wrong pipe when she turned around to see Kara being handed a lease for a new apartment. Both Danvers were trying desperately to refuse her gift, saying it was too much and too generous of her to do. But Lena, twelve-time chess champion at the age of seven, only arched an eyebrow and forebode the entire thing. She explained the lease was already paid for and if Kara refused, it would be quite hard to find a way to sell it. 

So in two days, Kara was settled in her new apartment, throwing a party with her friends to “break in the house”. They made game night a thing because of Kara. And because of Kara, it was also the reason why Winn’s Superfriends were closer than ever. 

There wasn’t a moment between them where they weren’t laughing or smiling, making teasing jokes about a person’s relationship status or drinking hard alcohol during weekend nights. 

  
There were times Lena crossed the imaginary line she made. She’d rest her head on Kara’s shoulder when they played cards, let Kara kiss her cheek before darting off into the kitchen, and let the girl try and serenade her with karaoke. 

Every time Lena let her in a little closer, Kara went after it like live bait. Never in a thousand years did Lena want her to feel like she was being led on— but she couldn’t help but draw back whenever she pushed forward. A step forward and two steps back. 

  
If it bothered Kara, she almost never let it show. She’d untangle her arm away from Lena the moment she twitched or smiled gently when Lena pulled away. Sometimes, Lena could see her cracks. Whenever Kara thought she wasn’t looking, there would be a frown on her lips. A creased brow indicated her clear confusion and sometimes, only sometimes, Lena could see that she was growing anxious. 

Yet Lena never did anything. She would try and be as friendly as she could with Kara, knowing that Kara loved being with her, _ adored _her— as much as she tried to deny it, everyone could see it. But there was a line between them, a bold, flaming red line that never let them talk about the implications of their relationship.

  
So Lena spent an entire week trying to move on with her life. 

But every day, Kara would call her on her new phone (Alex told her that she was the first person Kara added to her contacts). Kara would chat incessantly with her, never giving Lena time to breathe. She would talk about her day, ask Lena’s about hers, ask Lena about her work, all the while clearly listening to every big word Lena threw out by accident because she would _ ask. _Not even Winn would ask her about things. Not Sam, not James, not Alex.

By the first month, Lena had shifted from being wary of getting close to Kara to guiltily loving every moment she spent with her. 

  
One day, Lena found a bouquet of flowers in her office. Pink and white carnations, arranged in a small pot. The tag had loopy handwriting, written in nice cursive and signed with a different colored pen. _ It’s been a month! Thank you for sticking by my side. Grab a bite with me soon? -Kara Danvers _

The gesture exploded several emotions in Lena’s heart. Before she could make sense of what she was feeling, she called up a flower shop and ordered twelve separate bouquets to Kara’s new assistant job. When asked for a tag and a name, she hesitated, then told them to only add a heart. No name. Because Kara would know, she always knows.

  
When she slumped back against her seat, Lena’s heart stuttered in her chest. She took a shaky breath in and gulped, feeling the corners of her eyes prick with the effort to keep tears inside. 

_ Don’t think about it, _ she told herself furiously. _ Little boxes. Remember? Because soulmates could refer to friends. _

* * *

Months later, news about the missing Supergirl statue still hasn't died down. Once in a while, Lena’s TV or radio would speak about how there was a new theory, a new suspect, over who stole the Girl of Steel. But every time, those things would be shut down, clarified by the police that there was no solid evidence.

Lena was sitting in her apartment and reading a book when her quiet TV crackled to life. She usually tuned it out, keeping it on in favor of background noise, but she couldn’t help but crane her neck upwards when she heard her name. 

  
The headline made her scramble to sit upright on her bed, her book face down on her bedside table. _ “L-Corp allegedly steals Supergirl for profit” _ read the headline. Her jaw slackened. 

Maxwell Lord was on the screen, speaking into a news anchor’s microphone with a practiced smile and a straight-edged back. “There’s no doubt that Lena Luthor is responsible for taking it,” he said into the mic. Lena clutched her bed sheets until her knuckles turned a painful white. “The history of her company is… dishonest at best. She was seen to be in Midvale the same day Supergirl was taken. I know it seems like a stretch but let me put it into perspective for you all: a billionaire CEO with a shameless past goes to Midvale with her ‘friends’ and needs an excuse to turn the media away from her company, so she takes one of the most prized belongings America has. Does that seem believable to you? I know it does for me.”

Reporters clamor to Max, yelling over each other with questions about his issued statement. In a fit of rage, Lena took the remote and turned it off, tossing it directly at her TV. It only bounced off and skidded on the floor with a clunk. 

Before she could get up and pace, her phone rang. Her blood pounding in her ears, she didn’t bother to check the caller ID before picking it up. In the split second before bringing her phone to her ears, she saw a flood of notifications to her business email and her personal texts alike. 

  
“Lena!” called the voice, sounding obviously relieved. “Are you okay? I just saw what happened.”

  
“I’m fine,” Lena answered with a bite. She cleared her throat and tried to sound as calm as possible. “Fine, Kara. It’s late. Shouldn’t you be going to sleep?”

There was a pause. “I wanted to check up on you first.”

  
“I’m okay, Kara.” Her voice melted away, giving to the gentle tone. Kara’s genuine concern put her at ease, and the blood stopped pushing in her temples and ears. “Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Can I come see you now?” Again, a pause, as if Kara herself wasn’t expecting those words to come out. She started stuttering out her words. “I mean, if you’d let me. It’s— it’s really late. I just don’t feel like I should leave you alone after that. And—”

  
“Kara.” She laughed softly. Her heart felt light. “I’d like you over. But are you sure…?”

  
“I’m sure. I really wanna see you.”

Lena took a moment to pretend the wind wasn’t just knocked out of her chest. “Okay.”

Once she put her phone down, Lena didn’t know what to do. She knew she should probably change, considering she was in nothing but a tank top and some pajama pants that Sam gifted her on her birthday. She also knew that her house was a bit of a mess, neglected by all the times she had to run out the door ten minutes after waking up.

The battle in her head was answered for her when someone was buzzed up into her room. Lena couldn’t comprehend how Kara could’ve came so soon, but her door was already knocking and she was up before she knew it. 

  
She opened the door to see a wide-eyed Kara, fiddling with her glasses in her hands and biting her lower lip in a way that showed she was nervous.

“Are you okay?” she blurted out. “I was—” Then her eyes darted down to Lena’s outfit and the blush already on her cheeks grew darker. “Was, um…”

  
“Do you wanna come in?” Lena asked her, opening the door much wider. She tried not to seem amused.

  
“Yeah! Yeah, for sure,” Kara said, walking into Lena’s apartment with her head tilted to the ground. And then she pivoted, glasses back on her face, hands on her hips in an achingly familiar way, and was looking at Lena with concern that matched her voice on the phone. “Are you okay? Do you need me to do anything?”

  
Lena couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled over. She gestured for Kara to sit down on her couch and she went into her small kitchen space to grab something to drink. Kara sat down, albeit rigidly, and kept watching her while chewing her lip. Lena asked her if she wanted anything from the kitchen, which Kara graciously answered for water.

  
She shut her fridge closed and took out two water bottles. She paused beside her counter. “How did you get here so fast?”

  
“I drove,” Kara said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lena did the math in her head. “You’d need to go double over the speed limit to get here.”

  
Kara looked confused. “There’s a speed limit?”

“How did you pass your driving test?” Lena said incredulously, walking over to her with the water. She tossed one to Kara, who opened the cap and took a little sip. 

  
Kara’s eyes were dancing with mischief as Lena sat down beside her on the couch. She shifted her body to look at her, elbow on the backside of the couch. “I’m joking,” she said with a laugh. Lena hit her gently on the arm and she laughed a bit harder. “But yeah, I went over the speed limit. Kinda. Just a couple miles over.”

“Kara, you can get a ticket for that,” Lena said, still baffled as ever.

Kara only shrugged. “You’re worth it.”

There it was again. The seizing in Lena’s chest, like a vice that held her steadily there, not letting go. Kara noticed her go stiff, and she leaned a bit farther away from Lena. That was when Lena realized she did it a lot— she let go of Lena whenever she stiffened, pulled farther away, did anything to give Lena her space. She didn’t know how to feel about it. Should she be glad? It didn’t feel like she should.

  
“Sorry,” Kara said awkwardly. The dim light in her apartment cast a shadow over Kara’s blue eyes. But even then, Lena knew that there was a sadness in them. Clearing her throat, she continued, “That Lord guy is such an asshole. Why is he trying to vilify you so much?”

  
Lena leaned against the couch, laughing dryly. It sounded more like a scoff. “National City has been trying to vilify me since I got here.”

  
The look in Kara’s eyes made her want to take it back. To say a white lie, just to get rid of the distress in her face. “What? Why? You’re so— you’re the most amazing woman here. I mean— what other person do you know can do the things you can do?” She sounded so baffled and honest that Lena wanted to cry.

  
“My family isn’t exactly picture perfect,” she admitted, fiddling with the cap. It scared her how easily she could admit it to Kara. She already told her the things Lex had done, what her mother had done. But she felt like she needed to remind Kara. 

“I wasn’t talking about them.” Her features became softer. “The Luthor name doesn’t deserve you, Lena.”

The words were out of Lena’s mouth before she could stop them, five small words that had ridden on her back for _ months, _plaguing every moment she spent that was happy and content. “Well, I don’t deserve you.”

Kara suddenly looked serious. There was a flicker in her face, like a look of recognition, before it settled upon sincerity. For once ever since she came, she was scooting closer to Lena. “What makes you think that?”

Outside, the city streets were alive with the sounds of car tires and barking dogs. But Lena couldn’t hear them. She could only hear the sound of her breathing as she took breaths in and out, and the way her heart drummed painfully in her ears. “I don’t know, sometimes I—” Lena’s eyes were beginning to prick again. 

In an instant, Kara was there. She was rubbing her arm soothingly, keeping quiet to let Lena take her time. Her sad look made Lena want to kiss it all away. “You— you know _ exactly _how this looks, right?” Lena said lowly. She tried her best to keep her voice steady. To keep all the trembling feelings out of the way.

  
Kara was still looking at her, her eyebrows coming together in a confused matter. “Know what looks?”

“This.” Lena waved a hand around clumsily. She tilted her head to the side, finding the softness of her couch more aggravating than comforting. 

“Lena, I don’t really understand,” she said slowly. Her voice was nearly a hush.

  
_“You!”_ she answered sharply. Her piercing voice caused Kara to move her hand away like she was poison. Lena tried to relax, to apologize profusely to her friend, but the ball dropped away from her gut and she was rambling every single thought that dropped into her head. “You really want me to just accept the fact that you, a statue dated all the way from God knows how long, are my _soulmate_?”

“No,” Kara mumbled quietly. Her hand rested on her lap, fidgeting. “That’s why I was being so patient with you.”

“What does that even _ mean_?” she cried, her voice growing shrill and loud. Her tears were about to give at any second and she kept forcing them back, telling her to stop, to stay strong. “Are— are you supposed to be my best friend? Someone who understands me from the inside out? Or my— my girlfriend? What are you to me, Kara?”

“We don’t have to be anything you’re not comfortable with,” Kara answered her quietly.

“How does this even work? How are you alive? Why are you here?” _ Why are you mine? _

“Lena—”

“On all accounts, you shouldn’t even be _ alive. _ I still have trouble processing that you, a goddamn _ statue, _ came to life because of— of me? And that all of my friends had no problem taking you in— like hell, Alex was ready to lay down her life for you and none of them wondered for a split moment why you’re _ here_!” Her voice was a shout. She wanted to get up and slam the door but she can’t. She’s stuck. 

Kara kept her mouth shut this time.

“Do you know what that’s like? To be told that someone is your soulmate?” she said, much more quietly. “That, apparently, you get to be loved? After your mom dies because of you, after your brother abandons you, _ deceives _you? That I get to have a happily ever after, just like that, after everything that I did?”

“Yes.” Kara’s voice was so quiet that Lena almost didn’t hear it. Yes to her first question or her last, she had a feeling it was both.

It was like a bucket of cold water had splashed directly into Lena’s face. _ Oh. _

And then she couldn’t stop crying. She couldn’t stop the sudden sob that racked her chest so hard it hurt. Kara’s arms were around her in an instant, warm and comforting. It only caused her to cry even harder, the taste of salt on her lips. It was hard to breathe, but Kara’s hand on her back made it easier, painless even. 

  
All she could think about was that Kara was real. That Kara wasn’t the only one who had to face the prospect that she had a soulmate too, and she had been nothing but kind, loving, and patient— while Lena had switched on and off between being just that.

  
“I’m really sorry,” she finally got out. Her voice was hoarse from her cries. Her body hiccuped. Kara had a water bottle up to her lips in a second. She gulped it down generously. “I kept thinking about how this was affecting me that…”

  
Kara kissed her temple, lips lingering for a drawn moment. It made her heart quiver in her chest, and her face burned with the spot where Kara’s lips had been. “Can I tell you a secret?”

  
Lena nodded mutely against her shoulder.

  
“Did you ever wonder why I knew your name before you told me?” 

  
Of course she did. 

Kara shifted to a more comfortable position. Her arms never left Lena’s body. Fingers tickled the side of Lena’s arm, but it was comforting. “I think you were with me before all of this,” she said quietly against Lena’s hair.

  
Lena almost missed her words. She looked up, prying herself away from Kara’s shoulder. “What?”

  
Kara smiled apologetically at her. “Call me crazy if you want, but I was thinking about it for a while. And trust me, it sounds _ completely _insane but—”

  
“More insane than the fact you were a statue?” 

They laughed together, sounding much more carefree and less restrained than when Kara came in through her door. “You won’t judge me?” Kara finally said. She still sounded a bit reluctant.

  
Lena only smiled warmly at her. She put a hand over Kara’s and gently squeezed. Kara visibly relaxed under her touch, and her eyes darted up to hers. “I’ve never really told you about my life before the statuing, huh?” 

  
Lena hummed. “You told me a couple things. I didn’t want to push you for more, but I loved hearing about it.” She really did. Kara’s old friends sounded almost exactly like the friends they had now. Lena remembered faintly of a woman she always talked about, never named and never really relevant to the anecdotes Kara had, but she was always there. 

  
“There was this girl I really liked,” Kara began. “I was… so _ sure _she was my soulmate. When Krypton got attacked, she was the first person I went to. I told her I would protect her, and I’d die trying, and when I finally got caught—”

  
“You think she was me?” Lena didn’t try to hide the bewilderment in her voice.

  
“See? You’re laughing at me!” Kara was starting to pout, but it only made Lena laugh. She squeezed Kara’s hand tighter.

“Not at you, _ with _you,” she explained stupidly, an excuse she’s used before when Winn was being stupid. Her sorry excuse went noticed, and Kara only arched an eyebrow. But Lena was smiling innocently enough, so she reluctantly kept going.

“I mean— I know it sounds stupid, believe me. But her name was Lena too.” Kara looked hesitant. “On Krypton, a lot of people believed in reincarnation. I was one of the few who doubted it.”

Lena considered it for a second. “And she looked like me?”

  
“Almost exactly like you.” She sounded breathless.

Lena pressed her lips together in a thin line. “What’s missing?”

  
She didn’t have to explain it for Kara to understand. Without a word, Kara shifted and pulled on the scrunchie she kept on her wrist; Lena turned around without being asked. Gently, as if she was scared she was going to pull too hard, she carded her fingers through Lena’s hair and brought it up. 

When Lena turned around to face her, Kara’s breath hitched. Her eyes were zeroed in on Lena. They were lit up with adoration and a type of yearning that Lena had only seen flashes of between drinks at a bar. Her self-consciousness was more present than before.

“That was a really stupid idea,” Kara blurted out. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I told Winn and he told me it was impossible and I should’ve trusted him so—”

  
“Winn is an idiot,” Lena interrupted. 

Kara’s eyebrows jumped up. “You think my idea’s…?”

Lena chewed on her lower lip. “It’s possible,” she finally said. She didn’t know if she believed it. If it was just a crazy coincidence. But she couldn’t help but think that it’s true— that it could be the explanation for the gaps in her head and heart whenever she spent time with Kara. Like it was a life she lived before, a girl she’s loved before. Her thoughts jolted her out of her skin.

  
Staring at Lena meant Kara could see the subtle changes in her face. When she looked away, Kara was immediately concerned. “If this is too much, I can leave you alone for a while,” she offered halfheartedly, though genuinely.

  
“Can you stay?” Lena asked her gently. She kept her nervousness at bay.

Kara visibly sagged in relief. “Of course.”

The next few minutes were set in quiet comfort. Kara used her bathroom and some spare clothes to get ready for sleep. All the while, Lena went ahead and fixed her sheets, fluffing up her pillows to steady the nerves making her hands shake. 

Kara was already stepping towards her couch when Lena stopped her, gesturing over to the well-made bed. Kara lit up like a child with a present, and she couldn’t stop the smile creeping up on her face when Kara groaned in delight at the softness of her mattress. “I don’t know how you don’t want to stay in bed all day after sliding in here,” she said, turning over on her stomach to moan softly into her pillow.

  
Lena laughed, taking hold of her blanket to let herself in. She slid next to Kara, their arms nearly touching. She could feel the heat coming off Kara’s body. It was strangely comforting. She didn’t have the confidence to tell her that having Kara in bed was probably even better than the silkiness of her sheets. 

They said goodnight, twin looks of content on their faces as they sunk deeper into the comfort of Lena’s bed. 

“Lena?” Kara called in the darkness.

  
Lena mumbled a response. 

Kara giggled under her breath. She turned to face her, moving the sheets over in the process. Lena was face to face with a sheepishly smiling Kara. It flipped her stomach over like a pancake. “I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable.”

  
Lena quirked her brow. “What are you talking about?”

  
By the faint light of the city, Lena could see her blue eyes. She was so close to them that she could see the gray and hazel in her irises. Without thinking, she reached over and clasped Kara’s hand, the one that laid right beside her head. It was a little bigger than hers, and much warmer. Kara's fingers curled over her palm. 

“I know that everything about this doesn’t sit right with you,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Lena said fiercely. “This isn’t your fault.”

  
Kara smiled sadly at her. “And about the news thing too,” she continued tentatively. “You don’t deserve anything like this.”

“Darling, I’ve been through worse. You just make it a bit more bearable.” It slipped between her lips so easily. She didn’t regret it. Especially after Kara’s sad smile softened into something more genuine and the creases in her forehead relaxed.

Carefully, like she was afraid that Lena was going to bolt or jerk away, Kara gripped Lena’s hand a bit tighter. She brought it up to her lips and kissed the mole on Lena’s second knuckle. She did it so gently and with so much care that Lena almost let out a small cry. She’s never been held so delicately like this. Sure, in meeting rooms and galas men were eager to please, ready to kiss the back of her hand and show her around to win her high graces.

But there was intimacy behind Kara’s gentle kiss. The way her eyes glanced from their hands to Lena’s face were cautious, as if she was wondering if she stepped over the invisible line Lena put between them. 

In her head, Lena doused water over that line. She scrubbed it clean. If Kara gets to look at her like that for now on, it would be worth it.

And it certainly was. Lena lifted her head an inch away from her pillow and brought her body closer, slotting her leg over Kara’s thigh to get as close as she could. Her lips found Kara’s in the dark.

They were unbearably soft, much more comforting than the silk of her pillow. They moved against hers without a question. There was a spark in Lena’s stomach, like a stone striking against stone. It lit up her body, nudging her to move her lips more, to let out a soft whimper. Her response only encouraged Kara, who slung an arm over her waist and pressed her lips harder against hers.

  
With her eyes closed, Lena saw visions of a life she used to live. Of a blonde girl who held her hand comfortingly over her sickest days, of the smile that crinkled the edges of a pair of eyes. 

  
Loosening the sigh in her chest, Lena let go. Their lips were still so close that she could talk and feel their kiss tickling at her. Lena’s arm was swung over Kara’s neck. Kara hadn’t let go of her waist either.

  
“If that’s what I’ve been missing as a statue, then I don’t want to go back,” Kara declared.

Lena laughed, the joy causing her eyes to prickle again. Kara laughed with her, though it ceased the moment she noticed the tears forming in Lena’s eyes. 

  
“What happened?” Kara asked. She pulled her head an inch away, and Lena felt the conflicting need to cry even harder and ask her to come back, even though their limbs were tangled up in each other. “Did— I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you back like that. I—”

“Kara,” she said softly. The name tickled the back of her neck. It made Kara shiver, who hesitantly rested her forehead against Lena’s. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I’ve been pushing you away and been so cynical that I didn’t even realize you…” She cleared her throat and watched Kara’s eyes trail over the tear that rolled over to the pillow. “They’re happy tears. Trust me.”

Kara pecked her lips, still as soft as ever. “We can take this as slowly as you need,” she whispered. “Whatever you want from me.”

“I love you,” she said suddenly. Her voice matched Kara’s in volume— soft, nearly lost to the quiet buzz of the city.

When Kara’s arm stiffened, her face was embarrassingly hot. “God, I’m sorry,” she stammered out. “I kiss you and five minutes later I’m— can we just go to sleep? Let’s go to sleep.”

Kara nuzzled her neckline, laughing into her chest. She brought her face up to kiss Lena one more time. “I love you too,” she said in delight. The sincerity in her voice made her relax. “I mean, it’s not that weird. We’ve been saying that after the month we met.”

“As friends,” Lena defended.

  
“It’s different now?”

  
Lena’s neck was starting to feel like a furnace. Under her arm, she could feel Kara’s shoulder and neck starting to heat up the same way. “If you want it to be,” she settled on saying. She really didn’t know how to respond.

  
Kara was all smiles for her. “Well, soulmate,” she said pleasantly, shifting to move her other arm under Lena’s neck, “I was hoping to take you out on a real date anyway.”

The corner of Lena’s mouth tipped into a smile. “There’s a Chinese restaurant across my building.”

Kara perked up at that. “Potstickers?” she asked excitedly. “Is it all you can eat? I got kicked out of one with Winn because I kept eating but I promise I’ll behave this time.”

Lena kissed her again, laughing into her mouth. “Oh my God, I love you,” she groaned. Kara smiled back into another kiss.

  
Instead of sleeping, they talked into the night about everything that came into their minds. About the absurdity of their relationship, the latest gossip among their friends, the new project Lena was working on— they were just happy to talk.

The happiness in her heart was unrivaled with anything Lena has ever felt. Kara pressed another kiss on her lips, the umpteenth time that night. She asked again how Lena wanted to take their relationship, if she wanted it to go slowly, if she wanted to jump straight until telling their friends. After all, the single night had turned them from dancing around one another to becoming tangled in the sheets with bruised lips.

Lena thought about it for a long while, nearly sighing at the feeling of Kara’s fingers carding through her hair. 

  
“Take me on a date first,” she said. Kara smiled gently at her. “And then you can have me for as long as you want.”

On the night of their date, Kara took her by the hand and only ever let go when she had to. They danced on the sidewalk of a bridge near Kara’s apartment, clumsy kisses and feet following their every move. 

* * *

In the following month, Maxwell Lord’s accusation was buried underneath the other crazy tirades he inflicted on other people. He became the boy who cried wolf and Lena rubbed it in his face by visiting where the statue had been again, this time in complete public.

Hand in hand with Kara, she let James take a picture of them kissing on the empty pedestal, where other people had been too nervous to step on. 

It caused a trend that nudged couples to step where Supergirl stood, posing for pictures by kissing, holding hands, confessing, or proposing. Groups of friends would play king of the hill, or try to balance each other on the small platform to take a photo all together. 

Slowly, the media stopped caring about who had stolen the statue. They focused on the love it surged with instead, on the newest celebrity couple that visited for a grand romantic gesture, or about a regular pair that had met on vacation there and fell in love. 

  
Kara kissed the top of Lena’s head while they watched TV, where a news anchor described the story many people were beginning to believe. That the statue had found her soulmate, and had decided to live out her new life with them in unconditional bliss. It was a story that the public ate up, acknowledging it as a tale of true love.

“Wherever the statue is and whoever you are, if you’re even real,” the anchorman began, his cheesy smile plastered on his face, “we’re overjoyed to know you’ve found the one.”

“Can’t I just tell them it’s me?” Kara said with a groan, throwing her head back over the couch. “I hate it when they call me ‘the statue’. Do they really think a piece of rock could fall in love?”

  
“Well, you do rock my world,” Lena purred. The tips of Kara’s ears were starting to turn red. So she leaned over and kissed it. “And I don’t think they’d really believe you if you told them.”

“What if I whipped off my glasses really dramatically and ripped my shirt open to—?” Kara suggested hopefully.

“No. No shirt ripping,” Lena said with a little laugh. “That’s for me. I'll turn you back into a statue if you do.”

Kara rolled her eyes jokingly. "Okay, Medusa."

**Author's Note:**

> Come throw tomatoes at me in the comments or on my Tumblr, @cosmiccaptain!! I'm in the middle of writing an Anastasia AU! I love getting writing prompts or talking to people about supercorp because my friends just think I rave about the Gays too much, ignoring the fact that I, too, am very much Gay.


End file.
